Senior Research Scientist (AI)

TL;DR

Senior Research Scientist (AI): Developing and training foundation models for autonomous driving simulation with an accent on behavior and agent modeling. Focus on designing large-scale deep learning experiments, implementing generative models, and advancing the capabilities of the Waymo Driver.

Location: Onsite in Mountain View or San Francisco, California

Salary: $204,000–$259,000 USD

Company

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company dedicated to building the world's most trusted driver to improve mobility and safety.

What you will do

• Conduct applied research and development on foundation models for simulation.
• Design and execute experiments by training and evaluating large-scale deep learning models.
• Present research findings and technical results to peers and leadership.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code with comprehensive unit tests and documentation.
• Collaborate with research teams across Alphabet to solve open problems in autonomous driving.

Requirements

• Masters or PhD in deep learning, specifically in behavior modeling, agent modeling, or simulation.
• 3+ years of professional experience with modern deep learning frameworks.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Experience with generative modeling and LLMs or VLMs (e.g., Gemini, Llama, GPT).
• Must be able to work onsite in Mountain View or San Francisco, California.

Nice to have

• Experience with post-training techniques including reinforcement learning.
• Knowledge of model distillation processes.
• Expertise in Transformer architectures.
• Experience with autoencoders and embedding techniques.

Culture & Benefits

• Eligibility for discretionary annual bonus program.
• Participation in company equity incentive plan.
• Comprehensive company benefits program.
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge autonomous driving technology.
• Collaborative environment with access to Alphabet-wide research initiatives.